I just thought I’d share a really shitty situation that I found myself in this morning. As many of you who read this know, it’s essay season… I’ve been bombarded, and now am overjoyed to say that I have ONE left! Anyway, continuing with my story…

I stayed up all last night finishing up an essay that was to be handed in at 4:00pm today. The writing was going great…I really enjoy writing essays of sociological theory class…. however, I ran out of coffee beans around 4:00am. I guess I could have started drinking tea… but I decided to instead try to make a shot of espresso from the coffee grinds that don’t quite make it into the portafiliter. I didn’t know how long they had been there for, and knew that it would most likely taste like shit because of the oxidation that would occur quickly after the grinding was done, but I decided to go through with it. This is a bad idea…

Don’t try this… it was disgusting… it literally made me gag. Needless to say, I battled the night with the help of tea instead of coffee.

So I guess…. don’t make shitty espresso from really old grinds… and …. don’t be a jackass and do something you know you shouldn’t…. just drink tea instead.

Tones or notes are made by blowing air into or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes (reed chambers) or multiple holes. The pressure caused by blowing or drawing air into the reed chambers causes a reed or multiple reeds to vibrate up and down creating sound. Each chamber has multiple, variable-tuned brass or bronze reeds which are secured at one end and loose on the other end, the loose end vibrates and creates sound. Reeds are pre-tuned to individual tones. Each tone is determined according to the size of reed. Longer reeds make deep, low sounds and short reeds make higher-pitched sounds. On certain types of harmonica the pre-tuned reed can be changed (bending a note) to another note by blowing or drawing air strongly into the chamber.

The harmonica has made its way into all types of genres of music: folk, blues, rock, jazz, even dance and hip hop, And now, it is making its way into Carnegie Hall!

So you think you’re extreme? You like danger? Take a look at the cases below… and then reconsider your answer!

Wingsuit flying is much like watching a flying squirrel. The jumpsuit shapes the peoples bodies into an airfoil which can create lift. It was mostly used in skydiving activity, but recently they’ve been playing around with base jumping. It’s one of the most spectacular spectacles I’ve seen for a long time. Although it scares the shit out of me… it is still astounding! The flyer enters freefall wearing both the wing suite and the parachute equipment, and when the all the fun of flying is over, the parachute is deployed in order to get a safe landing. This is pretty amazing stuff… It pretty much allows your to imitate birds… and as you will see below, the experience from flying a wing suit can be compared to the experience of a hawk!

Now this… This is Dan Osman…. Pretty much a pretty damn good definition of extreme. Dan was known for the dangerous sports of free-soloing (climbing without ropes or other safety gear), and rope jumping (a controlled free-fall ofaround several hundred feet, and then being caught by a safety rope). He was even the record setter for rope jumping…1200 feet of free-fall…. That’s enough to turn my intestines inside out 5 times over! Unfortunately for the climbing world… Dan died on November 23, 1998 at the age of 35 after his rope failed while performing a rope jump in Yosemite National Park. Dan did miscalculate on his last jump. For some reason he moved his jump site. In doing so he crossed the ropes (either on the retrieval line or on the main jump line). When he jumped, the first knot above the one he was tied in with slid down a section of rope several lengths up. The sheath was heavily melted and removed in several sections on this upper part of the rope. The knot that slid down the rope was melted in multiple locations and was melted nearly completely through, deep inside the knot. This knot was not tight, yet others in the system were (this is the one open question that is unresolved as far as I know). He was a pretty amazing person! Check out the video below!

On the cover of the newest edition of Vogue magazine is an example of racial profiling?

Take a good look at the new cover, and think about some of the emotions and profiles that come in mind… King Kong… primal…. primitive…dangerous…aggressive…powerful…criminal…Aren’t these thing we should be moving away from? Especially on the cover of a magazine that represents ‘high’ society in North America?

“So when you have a cover that reminds people of King Kong and brings those stereotypes to the front, black man wanting white woman, it’s not innocent,”

“Images of black male athletes as aggressive and threatening reinforce the criminalization of black men.”

Whose standpoint is coming through in these pictures? What is mistakenly being represented? Keep in mind that this is the first black man to ever pose on the cover of Vogue magazine…

I am not taking a side in this argument, what I want is to generate discussion on my post… Pease let me know what you think!

Have you ever tried to buy cappuccino or espresso cups before? Why is it that the vast majority of them always have to have a stupid fucking saying like “I love Espresso” or “mmmmmmmm….” I don’t want that shit on my cups… I want a plain, simple, non-jackass looking cup so that I can enjoy my drink without feeling like an asshole! Who buys them anyway?? I guess if there is nothing else to buy then maybe you would have to bight your lip and drink out of a cup that labels itself as “Espresso” or “Cappuccino.” I’ve had better success going to thrift stores to buy my cups… and now I have one nice white cappuccino cup and a nice white latte cup (proper sized… none of this 17oz latte bullshit!). Maybe it’s because I live in such a small city that this is such a pain in the ass… I wish it wasn’t…That is all…

Sorry for the lazy post today, my stress levels are at an all time school-related high, and I would rather be writing my super sweet essays! (I kid you not, these essays will be some of my best work yet!) So Instead of giving you an entry to expand minds, I instead give you something to bring you back down, calm those senses, and let you enjoy a little chunk of time amongst this ‘end-of-school’ hustle and bustle.